Study of Silicon Valley’s traffic-choked Highway 85 will resume

Traffic on southbound Highway 85 approaches the junction with Highway 280 in Sunnyvale in March. A study on Highway 85 is expected to resume thanks to a loan from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

A crucial study examining worsening traffic on Highway 85, the vital Silicon Valley artery that links Cupertino and Mountain View, is expected to resume after months of inactivity.

The study, overseen by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, was halted in February after money slated to fund it was tied up in litigation. Now, a $1.2 million loan from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a Bay Area transportation agency, will allow the study to enter into its next phase, according to Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese.

“For a reasonable investment, we can start getting to the heart of this problem because it chokes off the quality of life of local residents and the vitality of some of our local businesses,” said Cortese, a member of the commission.

The study could provide data that will help officials determine solutions for the region’s traffic woes. Money for the study was approved by Santa Clara County voters in 2016 under Measure B, but that funding became inaccessible due to a lawsuit. In February, members of the study’s policy advisory board asked the Valley Transportation Authority to seek out another funding source, but an authority official said at the time that staff members have “looked under the couch cushions,” and “we’re just reaching a point where we don’t have additional funds for this project.”

The Valley Transportation Authority said Friday that it is partnering with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Federal Highway Administration on next steps and is “working to assess a date when the study will resume.”

In late July, Apple Vice President Kristina Raspe wrote to Cupertino City Council members about the company’s commitment to working on the Bay Area’s transportation issues, including Highway 85 and Stevens Creek Boulevard.

Raspe wrote in her letter that “for Cupertino and Apple to thrive we need to partner on both long-term and short-term solutions that will move our residents and employees more efficiently and effectively.”

Rod Sinks, Cupertino’s vice mayor, said he is delighted that the study will resume.

“Any reasonable way of continuing the study is good,” Sinks said.

Under the agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Valley Transportation Authority will repay the commission for the loan if it wins the lawsuit, according to the authority. If Measure B is repealed, the authority does not have to repay the commission for the loan.

Wendy Lee covers Yahoo, Google and Apple for The Chronicle’s tech desk. Previously, she worked at NPR-affiliate 89.3 FM KPCC in Pasadena, Star Tribune in Minneapolis and The Tennessean in Nashville.

Lee grew up in the Bay Area. She won The Chronicle’s high school scholarship in 2001 and landed a summer job as a copyperson at the paper, delivering mail, answering phones and writing news briefs. Lee graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in history and wrote for campus newspaper The Daily Californian.

She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and a preliminary judge for The Gerald Loeb Awards.